Buy-to-let lender comes clean about its complaints (all 64 of them)

Specialist buy-to-let lender CHL Mortgages says it received just 64 complaints in the first half of 2011 – a slight rise, but one which has failed to show up in official data.
 
Of these, one was upheld by the lender itself and seven were referred to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), and one of those has already been decided in favour of CHL.  The other six are awaiting decisions.
 
Alongside this, CHL has also received three other decisions from FOS for complaints submitted pre-2011; all three found in favour of CHL.

The buy-to-let lender currently manages over 44,000 live mortgage accounts.
 
CHL’s data follows the recent publication of complaints data by FOS for individual financial businesses which covered the same period – the first half of 2011.

CHL did not appear in this data as it only includes those businesses where FOS receives 30 or more complaints.
 
Bank of Scotland received the highest number of mortgage and home finance complaints with 590. Other lenders included Mortgage Express with 56 new complaints, GE Money with 42 and Bradford & Bingley with 35.
 
Bob Young, managing director at CHL Mortgages, said: “It’s important that CHL is as transparent as possible when it comes to the level of complaints we receive, which is why we also detail our numbers even though we do not appear in the official FOS data. 

“We pride ourselves on our low complaint levels, our ability to resolve them early, and the subsequent low number that are moved forward to FOS. 

“Sharing this complaints data and benchmarking our performance against national averages is an absolute necessity as far as we’re concerned. 

“Clearly, we compare well with other lenders, in particular those that continue to operate or operated in our sector.

“We continue to work hard with our customers to ensure we are delivering a strong service in this area and we handle any complaint with sensitivity, ensuring they are treated fairly. 

“We have seen a slight rise in complaints during the first half of 2011. However, this was anticipated, given the nature of the mortgage market at present.

“We continue to work hard to keep complaints to an absolute minimum and to maintain our focus on treating all such matters appropriately so that a conclusion that satisfies all can be reached as quickly as possible.”